XXXIII

by Thurlow, till in a later year he was convicted be- CHAP. fore Lord Mansfield of a libel, and sentenced to pay 1775. a fine of two hundred pounds and to be imprisoned June. twelve months. Thurlow even asked the judge to punish him with the pillory.

It was Hutchinson, whose false information had misled, the government. The moment was come when he was to lose his distinction as chief counsellor to the ministers, and to sink into insignificance. A continent was in arms, and the prize contended for was the liberty of mankind; but Hutchinson saw nothing of the grandeur of the strife, saying: "The country people must soon disperse, as it is the season for planting their Indian corn, the chief sustenance of New England."

With clearer vision Garnier took notice, that the Americans had acted on the nineteenth of April, after a full knowledge of the address of the two houses of parliament to the king, pledging lives and fortunes for the reduction of America, and of the king's answer. "The Americans," he wrote to Vergennes, "display in their conduct, and even in their errors, more thought than enthusiasm, for they have shown in succession, that they know how to argue, to negotiate, and to fight." "The effects of General Gage's attempt at Concord are fatal," said Dartmouth, who just began to wake from his dream of conciliation. "By that unfortunate event, the happy moment of advantage is lost."

The condemnation of Gage was universal. Many people in England were from that moment convinced, that the Americans could not be reduced, and that England must concede their independence.

The

XXXIII

CHAP. British force, if drawn together, could occupy but a few insulated points, while all the rest would be free; if distributed, would be continually harassed and destroyed in detail.

1775.

June.

These views were frequently brought before Lord North. That statesman was endowed with strong affections, and was happy in his family, in his fortune and abilities. In his public conduct, he, and he alone among ministers, was sensible to the reproaches of remorse; and he cherished the sweet feelings of human kindness. Appalled at the prospect, he wished to resign. But the king would neither give him a release, nor relent towards the Americans. Every question of foreign policy was made subordinate to that of their reduction. The enforcement of the treaty of Paris respecting Dunkirk, was treated as a small matter. The complaints of France for the wrongs her fishermen had suffered, and the curtailment of her boundary in the fisheries of Newfoundland, were uttered with vehemence, received with suavity, and recognised as valid. How to subdue the rebels was the paramount subject of consideration.

The people of New England had with one impulse rushed to arms; the people of England quite otherwise stood aghast, doubtful and saddened, unwilling to fight against their countrymen; languid and appalled; astonished at the conflict, which they had been taught to believe never would come; in a state of apathy; irresolute between their pride and their sympathy with the struggle for English liberties. The king might employ emancipated negroes, or Indians, or Canadians, or Russians, or Germans;

Englishmen enough to carry on the war were not to be engaged.

CHAP.

XXXIII

1775.

14.

The ministers, as they assembled in the cabinet, June on the evening of the fourteenth of June, were in very bad humor; Lord North grieved at the prospect of further disagreeable news. The most prominent person at the meeting was Sandwich, who had been specially sent for; a man of talents, greedy alike of glory and of money, but incapable of taking the lead, for he was incapable of awakening enthusiasm. There was no good part for them to choose, except to retire, and leave Chatham to be installed as conciliator; but they clung to their places, and the stubborn king, whatever might happen, was resolved not to change his government. There existed no settled plan, no reasonable project; the conduct of the administration hardly looked beyond the day. A part of them threw all blame on the too great lenity of North.

As there were no sufficient resources in England for the subjugation of America, some proposed to blockade its coast, hold its principal ports, and reduce the country by starvation and distress. But zeal for energetic measures prevailed, and the king's advisers cast their eyes outside of England for aid. They counted with certainty upon the inhabitants of Canada; they formed plans to recruit in Ireland; they looked to Hanover for regiments to take the place of British garrisons in Europe. The Landgrave of Hesse began to think his services as a dealer in troops might be demanded; but a more stupendous scheme was contemplated. Russia had just retired from the war with Turkey, with embarrassed finances, and an army

XXXIII

June.

CHAP. of more than three hundred thousand men. England had courted an alliance with that power, as a coun1775. terpoise to the Bourbons; had assented to the partition of Poland; had invited and even urged a former Czar to exercise a controlling influence over the politics of Germany; by recent demonstrations and good offices, had advanced the success of the Russian arms against the Ottoman Porte. The empress was a woman of rare ability; ambitious of conquest; equally ambitious of glory. Her army, so Potemkin boasted, might alone spare troops enough to trample the Americans under foot. To the Russian empress, the king resolved to make a wholesale application; and to the extent of his wants, to buy at the highest rate battalions of Russian serfs, just emancipated by their military service; Cossack rangers; Sclavonian infantry; light troops from fifty semi-barbarous nationalities, to crush the life of freedom in America. The thought of appearing as the grand arbitress of the world, with paramount influence in both hemispheres, was to dazzle the imagination of Catherine; and lavish largesses were to purchase the approval of her favorites.

This plan was not suddenly conceived; at New York, in the early part of the previous winter, it had been held up in terror to the Americans. Success in the negotiation was believed to be certain.

But the contracting for Russian troops, their march to convenient harbors in the north, and their transport from the Baltic to America, would require many months; the king was impatient of delay. A hope still lingered that the Highlanders and others in the interior of North Carolina, might be induced

XXXIII

to rise, and be formed into a battalion. Against CHAP Virginia, whose people were thought to exceed all 1775. bounds in their madness, it was intended to employ June. a separate squadron, and a small detachment of regular troops. Three thousand stand of arms, with two hundred rounds of powder and ball for each musket, together with four pieces of light artillery, were instantly shipped for the use of Dunmore; and as white men could not be found in sufficient numbers to use them, the king rested his confidence of success in checking the rebellion on the ability of his governor to arm Indians and negroes enough to make up the deficiency. This plan of operations bears the special impress of George the Third.

At the north, the king called to mind that he might "rely upon the attachment of his faithful allies, the Six Nations of Indians," and he turned to them for immediate assistance. To insure the fulfilment of his wishes, the order to engage them was sent directly in his name to the unscrupulous Indian agent, Guy Johnson, whose functions were made independent of Carleton. "Lose no time," it was said; "induce them to take up the hatchet against his majesty's rebellious subjects in America. It is a service of very great importance; fail not to exert every effort that may tend to accomplish it; use the utmost diligence and activity."

It was also the opinion at court, that "the next word from Boston would be that of some lively action, for General Gage would wish to make sure of his revenge."

The sympathy for America which prevailed more and more in England, reached the king's own brother, VOL. VII. 30